Violent storms and torrential rain has caused terrible flooding in southern and central China in the last few days. It is believed that as many as 6 people have died already as a result of the flooding. More rain is forecast for the coming days. Flooding during this time of year is not unusual in this area of Southern China.
The worst affected region was the Guangdong province. The capital city of the province, Guangzhou, received nearly 6cm of rain in a space of just 24 hours. However other cities were harder hit, with Xinyihad suffering over 10cm of rain in one day and Yangjiang 25cm of rainfall.
The province of Guizhou was also hit by flooding. Here water levels of the Nangao River have been dangerously high, putting many at risk, as this video clip of a man being rescued from his flooding home demonstrates:
These floods in mid May follow the terrible flooding that hit China’s southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region just 2 weeks earlier, where at least 6 people dies and 14 were injured as a result of floods and mudslides. On May 1 heavy rains hit the area and affected a total of 420,000 people, with as many as 17,000 having to evacuate. Nearly 300 homes were destroyed and huge swathes of agriculture and crops ruined.
Earlier in April China’s Sichuan province suffered from an earthquake which killed 200 and injured 13,000.
There has also been widespread flooding in northern China, this time as a result of rapidly melting snow. Much of the flooding has been in Ewenki, in China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, where 4,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. The snow melt resulted in rivers (particularly the Yimin River) and reservoirs flooding, which in turn hit the local villages.
Sources: Al Jazeera; RIA Novosti; BBC
Matthew_Brookes
- Edit
Those rescue videos are quite amazing. Dramatic stuff!
PatJackson
- Edit
The guys that got caught in the river flood on their way to work – wow. The water level must have just shot up so fast.